KEY POINTS:
It's rare to be touched, to the very core, by a comedy performance. It's even more unusual to feel sad and teary. The ideal is to nearly wet your pants, not leak from the eyes. I didn't cry during Confessions, a hilarious, dark, and emotional show by British
stand up Jason Cook (you can call him Jase). But there were tears welling up in many-a punters eyes, and for good reason.
He's a Newcastle lad, and he can be as potty mouthed as any true Geordie, but Jase decided a few years back he was over telling jokes to brainless yobs about jangly bits - not the words he used - and wanted to do something from the heart.
This show counts down 10 of Jase's confessions, during which he analyses his juvenile behaviour, inadequacies and demoned ways. Basically, he hangs his emotions out for the world to laugh at and cry about.
The first thing you notice when "the anorexic Chuck Norris" walks gormlessly on stage is his long, dank bob hair cut. Fittingly his first confession is that his girlfriend cuts his hair and the second is that she's not a qualified hairdresser.
He also reveals he's a practical joker. He thinks there's nothing funnier than giving someone a fright, and how he gets off on the anticipation of waiting behind the door before jumping out. Or even better, hugging his girl in bed and whispering in her ear, "Can you hear that Claire? Can you hear that?".
As the show goes on the confessions get increasingly heavy, delving into his love life, his childhood, and his relationship with his mum and dad (who he calls his hero, his protector, his "Incredible Hulk").
You laugh a lot during the show, it's just that as it progresses the nervous silences increase (like when he confesses to winding up his mum by telling people she beat him as a child or when he wishes his dad was dead); there's a few sweet "oh, bless" sighs (mostly to do with love of his life Claire), and then comes the heart wrenching finale when even Jase is choking back tears.
The last half of the show is lightened by a side story about the role his computers, be it his ZX-81 and Commodore 64, or his Mac and new lap top, have had in his life.
But it's his watering eyes and chokes, during which he still cracks jokes, that stab at your heart. In the end though, his message is a simple one: Call your dad after the show. Do it.
I didn't call my dad after the show - hey, we were in a hurry to get to David O'Doherty who we missed because Confessions went over time - but I'll be calling him today, even, as Jase suggests, he's likely to say, "I'll just get your mum".
* Jason Cook in Confessions runs until 3 May, 7pm at the The Classic, Queen St. (no show Sunday)